United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 21-3328 ___________________________ Caimin Li lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner v. Merrick B. Garland, Attorney General of the United States lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent ____________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________ Submitted: March 24, 2022 Filed: May 27, 2022 ____________ Before GRUENDER, ERICKSON, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges. ____________ GRASZ, Circuit Judge. Caimin Li, a native and citizen of China, entered the United States in 2007 on a nonimmigrant K-1 visa he obtained based on his engagement to a U.S. citizen. He was ordered removed to China in 2012 after he was convicted of aiding and abetting marriage fraud in order to evade immigration laws and procure his admission to the United States, see 8 U.S.C. §§ 1227(a)(1)(G)(ii), 1325(c), and an immigration judge (IJ) denied his applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). In 2020, he filed his third motion to reopen his proceedings, in which he sought to reapply for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the CAT based on changed country conditions in China.1 The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) concluded Li’s motion was untimely and numerically barred, and he was not excused from these bars because he failed to show a material change in country conditions. The BIA also concluded Li failed to show prima facie eligibility for relief. Finally, it declined to exercise its discretion to grant reopening sua sponte. Li petitions for review of the BIA’s order. For the following reasons, we deny the petition and vacate Li’s stay of removal. We review the denial of motions to reopen, which are disfavored, under a highly deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. See Kucana v. Holder, 558 U.S. 233, 242–53 (2010); INS v. Abudu, 485 U.S. 94, 107 (1988). A noncitizen generally may file one motion to reopen within ninety days of a removal order, but the time and numerical bars may be excused for a noncitizen seeking to apply for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT relief if the noncitizen shows changed country conditions in the country of nationality or removal since the initial proceeding, based on material evidence not previously available or discoverable, and if the noncitizen shows prima facie eligibility for relief. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c)(7)(A), (C)(i)–(ii); Sharif v. Barr, 965 F.3d 612, 618 (8th Cir. 2020); 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(3)(ii). “[T]o prevail on a motion to reopen alleging changed country conditions where the persecution claim was previously denied based on an adverse credibility finding in the underlying proceedings, the [noncitizen] must either overcome the prior determination or show that the new claim is independent of the evidence that was 1 The agency denied Li’s first motion to reopen based on changed country conditions, and this court denied Li’s petition for review of that decision. See Caimin Li v. Sessions, 699 F. App’x 590, 590–91 (8th Cir. 2017) (unpublished). The agency also denied Li’s second motion to reopen based on an alleged jurisdictional defect, and Li did not …
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